It’s a scandal (or it should be) of national—even international—proportions. But in Pennsylvania, where the news first reverberated, few understand the bigger ramifications: The ongoing furor has— just barely—kicked open the door of a hitherto secret house of horrors in which a whole host of spooks are lurking.

Exposed was yet another instance of Israeli spying on American soil. Adding insult to injury is the fact— revealed in Pennsylvania—that American tax dollars are being channeled to Israeli intelligence operations to spy on American citizens engaged in lawful political activity.

To understand the controversy, it is critical to recognize that in the wake of 9-11, “homeland security” became a booming racket—not just in the sense of a growing government bureaucracy. In fact, an amazing number of privately owned companies blossomed, operating in the sphere of American military, intelligence and law enforcement, contracting out services to U.S. government agencies and institutions at all levels.

An overwhelming majority of such firms are either 1) Israeli owned; 2) owned by U.S. subsidiaries of Israeli companies; or 3) owned by Americans tied to Israel and the Jewish lobby in America.

It was discovered that one such Israeli-owned company was spying on law-abiding citizens, paid to do so by the Pennsylvania state government—that is, the taxpayers .

Here’s the story:

In 2009, the Pennsylvania state Office of Homeland Security—under Gov. Ed Rendell—awarded a no-bid contract to a private company, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR). Its job was to monitor activities of a wide-ranging assortment of public-issue oriented organizations.

ITRR passed the fruits of its intelligence activities on to the state homeland security office that, in turn, distributed the information to a variety of law enforcement agencies, public officials and what is being described as others in “the private sector.”

Calling itself “the preeminent Israeli-American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe,” ITRR has offices in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Jerusalem. Corporate directors are Aaron Richman, a former Israeli police captain, and Michael Perelman, a former police commander in York, Pa.

By its own admission, ITRR focuses on monitoring those it calls “extremists” with a bent toward “religious, anarchist, anti-government, and anti-globalization” points of view—in short, virtually anyone with a point of view that could (potentially) run contrary to the outlook of the Jewish lobby in America and to the interests of Israel. And be assured that opponents of the “new world order” and foes of the banking establishment are on “the list.”

The Israeli point of view, outlined in historic religious teachings, is that anyone with any opinion or ideas is a possible danger: They might someday be an enemy.

ITRR’s alerts, distributed at taxpayer expense, cast political dissidents in Pennsylvania as potential terrorists, enemies of public order and threats to freedom. Those in Pennsylvania targeted by ITRR included attendees at a tea party march in Harrisburg, supporters of an anti-illegal immigration rally in Hazleton, critics of nuclear power, animal rights defenders, gay activists and a group protesting natural gas drilling. In other words, both “conservative” and “liberal” are subject to scrutiny.

The controversy surrounding ITRR began when the state’s homeland security director, James Powers, sent out an email “alert”—based on ITRR’s spy data—stating support for the natural gas industry and calling its critics “those groups fomenting dissent.”

Apparently, by accident, Powers’s bulletin was sent to Virginia Cody, among those protesting natural gas drilling (and thus subject to ITRR spying). Cody was disturbed to learn she and her colleagues had been targeted. In the wake of her discovery, independent media and political groups forced the mass media in Pennsylvania to take notice.

This proved embarrassing for Rendell. A Jewish Democrat known to jump ship politically when it comes to the issue of Israel—covertly backing pro-Israel Republicans over Democrats perceived unfriendly to Israel—Rendell moved into damage-control mode. He ordered ITRR’s contract canceled and made a bombastic public apology, shocked—he said—such a thing could happen.

In fact, the ITRR affair is the tip of the iceberg, one of myriad Israeli operations on U.S. soil subsidized by American taxpayers in many states, not to mention the federal level.

While some officials are raising questions about the ITRR matter, what none is asking is: Why, in the first place, was a group tied to a controversial foreign nation, central to some of the most difficult issues affecting U.S. foreign policy, even considered eligible for such a sensitive area as monitoring matters relating to America’s homeland security?

One activist spied upon by ITRR said his group was inclined to avoid discussing the Israeli connection. “It’s kind of controversial to comment on, you know, what with the Holocaust. I mean, I would rather not. The Jewish people have been through a lot.”

The presence in the Pennsylvania capital of the Patriot News—the big daily newspaper—helps protect Israeli interests in the matter: The Patriot News is owned by the national media empire of the Newhouse family—once the richest Jewish family in America— whose ties to Jewish lobby groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and to the Jewish crime syndicate (with which the ADL is intertwined) extend back more than half a century.

What those who have expressed outrage about the ITRR affair fail to note (perhaps out of concern of being targeted) is that ITRR’s activities mirror those of the ADL which—in a similar scandal that erupted in San Francisco in 1993—was found to be monitoring the activities of various groups.

While many thought the ADL spied only on the Ku Klux Klan, American Nazis, Arab-Americans and critics of Israel, it turned out the ADL’s chief operative, Roy Bullock, also compiled reports on environmentalists, gay rights groups and even civil rights organizations, including the NAACP.

It has since been confirmed—by a former ADL official and by Freedom of Information Act filings—that the ADL also spied on the late Martin Luther King Jr. and his friend and colleague, comic Dick Gregory. The ADL turned its spy data over to the FBI. So while it is frequently heard “the FBI spied on Martin Luther King,” the truth is much of the FBI’s data was actually accumulated by the ADL.

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The American media not only promotes the Christian and Jewish extremist alliance that supports the “neo-conservative” network, but it also lends its considerable clout to efforts by the neo-conservatives to turn Americans against the Arab and Muslim world.

For many years—long before the 9-11 terrorist attacks—the American media has broadcast fears of “terrorism” with the message clear: Arabs are terrorists, or, at the least, potential terrorists.

In fact, as the record shows, when the media turns to “experts” for information about terrorism, more often than not they’re turning to sources with close ties to Israel and its American lobby.

In 1989, Pantheon Books published a little-noticed volume that provides a stark and revealing look at the development and growth of what the authors dubbed “the terrorism industry.”

In The “Terrorism” Industry: The Experts and Institutes That Shape Our View of Terror, Professor Edward Herman of the University of Pennsylvania and his co-author, Gerry O’Sullivan, have provided a comprehensive and scholarly overview of the way that powerful private special interests (both foreign and domestic) have worked together with government agencies in the United States and internationally to influence the way that the world looks upon the phenomenon of modern-day terrorism.

Although the authors do not focus exclusively on the role of Israel and its American lobby in the “terrorism industry,” it is very clear from their carefully documented findings that Israel does indeed constitute a major player and has, from the very beginning.

THE KRISTOL CONNECTION—YET AGAIN

According to the authors: “Many of the institutes and think tanks that are important components of the terrorism industry originated or grew rapidly as part of a major corporate offensive in the 1970s.”(115)

They point out that one of the key organizers and fund-raisers — a powerful public relations voice behind this corporate offensive — was Irving Kristol who “succeeded in mobilizing a wide array of wealthy individuals, firms and foundations in the overall funding enterprise.” Kristol, of course, is the father of William Kristol, the primary publicist for the ideology of the “neo-conservative” network.

Using his clout within the ranks of the elite, it was the senior Kristol who was thus one of the prime movers behind a growing number of institutions devoting their resources to the study of “terrorism”—at least as Kristol and his associates define it.

So the “war against terrorism” was part and parcel of the neo-conservative long-range view—well before 9-11.

THE ISRAELI CONNECTION—YET AGAIN

In The ‘Terrorism’ Industry, Herman and O’Sullivan have pointed out the Israeli connections of some of the more notable institutions known for their active engagement in analyzing and explaining terrorism:

• The neo-conservative Heritage Foundation “helps fund and engages in joint activities with institutes in Great Britain and Israel.”

• The Jewish Institute on National Security Affairs (JINSA) “was organized and is run by individuals closely tied to the Israeli lobby and can be regarded as a virtual agency of the Israeli government.”

• Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies includes such well known “experts” on terrorism often quoted in the media as Michael Ledeen, Walter Laquer and Edward Luttwak who “have had very close relationships with Israel and Mossad.”

• The Institute for Studies in International Terrorism at the State University of New York, has “extensive international ties to military police and intelligence operations as well as the U.S., European, and Israeli right [which] reflect [founder Yonah] Alexander’s own connections.”

THE MEDIA PROMOTES THE ‘TERRORISM INDUSTRY’

With these institutions and others feeding “facts” about terrorism to the public, the media falls down on the job, according to Herman and O’Sullivan, by accepting without question the information (or is it “disinformation”?) on terrorism that the terrorism industry puts forth:

“The terrorism industry produces the Western ‘line’ on terrorism, and selects the appropriately supportive ‘facts,’ and the mass media disseminate these to the public. The transmission process is smooth, as the mass media pass long the manufactured messages without further substantial processing, functioning essentially as conduits.

“The U.S. mass media have raised no questions about the premises and agenda of the terrorism industry and generally fail even to filter out or correct literal error.”

Herman and O’Sullivan cite, as one example, a four-part series on “counter-terrorism” that appeared in The New York Times on December 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1984. The authors point out that the Times relied on Israeli officials and experts for about 20% of the information disclosed. The balance of those interviewed were largely U.S. officials and other “experts,” but the authors did not indicate whether the U.S. officials and experts included in the Times report had ties to Israel and its American lobby.

STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM FOR POLITICAL AIMS

The authors indicate, based upon their findings, that there is good reason to believe that certain acts of “terrorism” are, in fact, deliberate provocations created to advance the agenda of those ostensibly fighting terrorism. They write:

Agents of the state, and those of private groups as well, may not only implicate terrorists from within terrorist organizations, they may urge them to commit terrorist acts to justify prosecution. They themselves may carry out terrorist acts—attributed to others—for propaganda purposes. We believe that these actions are of great and underestimated importance.
It is not difficult for agents of intelligence organizations to set off a bomb or even to kill individuals, or to encourage or hire others to do these things; then to make a phone call claiming responsibility on behalf of a Red network or Palestinian organization. This is an easy way of creating a desired moral environment, and there is substantial evidence that states have frequently engaged in such practices.
The Israeli government carried out a number of terrorist bombings of U.S. facilities in Cairo in 1955-56, hoping that these would be attributed to Egyptians and damage relations between Egypt and the United States. In the United States, the FBI has long engaged in agent provocateur actions, urging violence on penetrated dissident organizations and carrying out direct acts of violence, then attributed to the individuals and organizations under attack.

There is much more to the business of “terrorism” than meets the eye, as Herman and O’Sullivan have pointed out. For this reason, Americans especially need to be wary of media reports about “terrorism” and to carefully consider precisely who is behind such reports.

The one and only Mark Dankof joins the show to discuss the recent “request” by Israel for the release of traitor/spy/accomplice to murder Jonathon Pollard.

Listen Now:

The “Israel First” Industry and CEO Profiteering
by Dr. James Petras. Over the past fifty years a far-reaching
transformation has taken place within Jewish organizations, among its
leaders and their practices and policies…an organized powerful political
machine which buys US Congress people and penetrates the Executive in
order to serve Israeli military aims.

A Word From Sgt. Raymond Turner, USA

"If I were the 'Stalin of America' most of our govt and media would be shot for treason or sent off to a FEMA camp or put to work on infrastructure projects. AIPAC and the Rothschild’s Federal Reserve would be no more. The debt would be erased over night. Lobbies and all political donations outlawed. MOSSAD agents in America would be shot on sight. And if Israel didn’t like it, some of our 81 nuclear attack subs and 11 carriers would finally be put to good use.John Hagee would simply be put on a starvation diet. Pam Geller sent to a concubinage in Saudi Arabia. Alan Dershowitz and Joe Lieberman parachuted into Afghanistan wearing IDF officer’s uniforms and MOSSAD ID. George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld taken to Nevada and tied feet-first to wild stallions. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh cast adrift on a life raft in the western Atlantic at 20 degrees north in the middle of Hurricane season. The entire lot of neo-cons involved in 9-11 would be loaded onto a remote control jet with just enough fuel to make it 500 miles off the east coast at 30,000′. These are only a few of the just ends for the traitorous agents of Israel.This country would be cleaned up in short order."Sgt. Raymond Turner, USA